Cristi told Komo 4 News in Seattle that Lola was enthralled by a video on Martin Luther King Jr. shown in school last month. So Cristi decided to turn her enthusiasm into an opportunity to teach Lola more about civil rights.

By actually becoming the women she was learning about, Lola has created a project that has the potential to change the way she views her place in this world for the rest of her life. “And it is extremely helpful that Lola truly emulates the women she’s portraying,” Cristi told Komo 4 News. “She gets into character and just nails it.”

And who are some of these iconic role models Lola has chosen to get into character and honor? The poet Maya Angelou, pilot Bessie Coleman, civil rights activist Rosa Parks, politician Shirley Chisholm, singer Josephine Baker, and Ruby Bridges — one of the first African-American children to attend an all-white school — are just a few of the talented, brilliant and powerful women Lola is learning about.

Her mom told the news station that becoming Jemison has taught Lola she can be anything she wants. And based on the incredible time, detail and passion Lola puts into transforming herself each day, it doesn’t seem like a stretch to imagine this extraordinary 5-year-old will someday be inspiring little girls with her own example.